Travel ball team started

[Rocketech1]

But my daughter wants to play in some softball tournaments this summer- so what choice did I have?

Any advice is definitely appreciated.

Cut your losses and chalk it up to a learning experience. Have your DD play as a pick-up player for other teams this summer and look for a quality, well established travel ball team in the fall. In the meantime, work on her skills this spring so she stays "game ready".

 

[grmerrill]

You need to take into account that costs will vary according to location and effort.

We are a bucket dad team. There I said it.

We started out with a winter facility cost of 1000$ divided among 11 girls, that brought us indoors for 4 months. We will divide all costs for tournaments and leagues evenly between all players, no free rides. So far they have paid 70$ each for 1 league and 1 tournament. Coaches are unpaid and they pay their share of the costs for their kid. Two full uniforms, jerseys, pants and socks ran us 130$ per girl.

6 days ago we started an easy fundraiser thinking we might bring in 20$ a kid and cover half a tournament. 6 days we have brought in over 1800$.

I am a believer in the power of the parent. We turned over fundraiser to a mom and she us running us like a fortune 500 company. We had a dad that used to play football step up and is doing conditioning with the team once a week. We have two parents that have volunteered locations for car washes. Relatives that are going to donate baked goods. Parents that provided their food handlers permit when we needed it to sign up for a marketing event. We have parents and family members bending over backwards to help in the background so the coaches can focus on the girls.

We were in a similar boat and it was supportive parents that stepped up to really pull things together.

Now, we will be playing against organizations that are non profits, that have teams in all age groups. Teams that run tournaments to fund their teams, teams that charge 1800$ to get your girl on the team and a uniform. Things may be tough.

Our goals are much more short term than others here, our focus is to help them improve and be ready for next year or school ball in the fall.

But it can be done, we are working hard to do well and not fail. We may fail because I don't have the coaching skills as many organizations, but by good I am going to go down fighting.

Don't give up.

 

[Easton33]

I agree with other poster, do it all in person and have the girls with you. Find something that you think most in your community will want and raffle it. $1 or $5 for ticket depending on cost of item. Taking rec PARENTS into tournament ball is hard. The girls adjust quick compared to what it takes for a rec parent to become a good TB parent. I have the feeling this will not be the last tournament ball surprise you have. Just wait till your first tournament and you are paired with a successful TB program. Then the conversation is money vs return. Paying X amount of money and getting exactly 0 wins in a tournament is not fun and most rec parents will jump ship or will be leaning over the side to say the least.
Back to the point though, work well in advance of your tournament season and do your fundraisers, get sponsors, etc. Let your coaches know there is a lot more to it than showing up on game day. We started raising money and getting uniforms for this spring last fall.We don't have a huge amount of money in the bank (a few grand) but we got cushion to do some things. Depending on tournament, you could have to prepay a couple of months in advance for a $500 tournament. It is not too late, team meeting about finances and everyone will need to attend. Lay out the costs, lay out the fundraising ideas, and get started immediately. On a personal note, keep your eyes open for a team looking for a player cause it doesn't sound like this is going to last.

 

[Purr2]

Thank you all so much. It was all appreciated and it's inspired me to make some changes here. I think we want to fight a little bit longer to keep this team here for her- at least see what the other parents say about helping. I'll think long and hard and consider everything said though. This may be abnormal and also mean that she doesn't love playing as much as I am hoping that she does, but at 11yo my dd has no interest in playing softball (or basketball by the way), unless she's playing with the girls from her school. As a girl that SAYS that she loves to pitch... and has already been trained so perfectly and put in so much work already... I'd love to see her stick with softball as far as it will take her. But there's something in the back of my mind though that KNOWS taking her away from her school friends to play softball elsewhere would be the fastest way to put a nail in the coffin of her possible future in softball.

All of the info helped so much- in fact, i think i may pay a visit to walmart tomorrow. THANKS AGAIN!

 

[Sparky Guy]

Send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you my spreadsheet that I use for my teams. It will give you a good idea of what's involved with the financial end of running a team.

 

[Strike2]

Taking rec PARENTS into tournament ball is hard. The girls adjust quick compared to what it takes for a rec parent to become a good TB parent.

Holy crap...taking rec PARENTS into rec LEAGUE can be hard!

 

[wakenfoozle]

Just started a 12u travel team, $150 buy in. That is going to cover uniforms except for pants. will have money in the bank for tournaments that once entry fees are paid the parents ar egoing to divide the cost evenly and money will go back into the account. Any fundraising will pad the account for equipment and all the pretty matching helmets and bags down the road.

 

[grmerrill]

We decided to stay away from team equipment. I don't want to have to deal with a player leaving and trying to claim what they think is theirs. Bats and personal equipment are up to the player. I found used softballs for 1$ each off of the classifieds. Nets, tees, agility ladders, cones, etc were all purchased while on sale and are my personal equipment.